BEARD: Leaders no more, Boilermaker football team routed again

Wisconsin piles up 645 yards in total offense

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — On the first play from scrimmage — after a 44-yard kickoff return by Akeem Hunt — Purdue University quarterback Caleb TerBush bounced around patiently in the pocket until he saw Antavian Edison running free a few strides from the end zone.

It took a video review and Edison's right knee to wipe a 53-yard touchdown pass off the Ross-Ade Stadium scoreboard after Wisconsin safety Dezman Southward finally dragged Edison to the ground. But none of that really mattered after TerBush followed his 52-yard completion by stretching the football over the goal line on the next play.

Just like that, 38 seconds into Saturday's homecoming game, the Boilermakers led Wisconsin 7-0 and the Purdue faithful in the crowd of 46,007 had reason to believe again that a trip to the Big Ten championship game was a possibility.

Getting an early lead on Wisconsin, after all, was one of the keys to victory on Purdue coach Danny Hope's checklist. But as it turned out, that quick strike was the only element of the offensive game plan that theBoilermakers (3-3, 0-2 Big Ten) managed to successfully execute in a 38-14 loss to the Badgers (5-2, 2-1).

"I was not pleased with our quarterback performance today. I was not pleased with the performance of the offensive line. I was not pleased with the performance of the wide receivers," said Hope. "And I don't know if the running backs had a chance or not — we'll see that on film."

The statistics paint a more dismal view of Purdue's offensive effort.

The Boilermakers mustered only 252 yards of offense and 122 of that came on two plays — Edison's 52-yard reception and Hunt's 81-yard touchdown run with 1:39 remaining in the game. Take away those two plays and Purdue produced 119 yards on 57 plays.

The Boilermakers also only converted on three of 16 third-down opportunities and picked up just 11 first downs — two of those coming courtesy of Wisconsin penalties.

It may take awhile to sort out everything that went wrong for the Purdue offense. Hope chose to make all three quarterbacks — Robert Marve and Rob Johnson also saw action — off limits for interviews after they combined to complete only 11 of 31 passes with an interception.

But then, there was again plenty to second guess about Purdue's defense one week after Michigan blistered the Boilermakers for 44 points and 305 rushing yards.

Wisconsin's Montee Ball likely would have topped the 300-yard threshold by himself if he hadn't taken a seat after scoring his third touchdown in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter to set the Big Ten record for career touchdowns (72). Ball finished with 247 yards rushing to fuel a Wisconsin offense that racked up 645 yards, including 467 on the ground.

"I needed this," said Ball, who was a Heisman Trophy finalist a year ago but this season had averaged fewer than 95 yards per game before Saturday. "I wasn't doing too well earlier in the season and things really weren't going my way."

After the past two weeks — a combined 82-27 thrashing — things definitely aren't going the way the Boilermakers had envisioned for this season. Hope even tried to keep the talk of being Big Ten contenders alive this week, but he has no choice but to find another motivational hook now.

"The Leaders Division is a longer shot now," said Hope, whose team travels to Ohio State next weekend.

Longer shot? Make that no shot.

Defensive tackle Kawann Short said that after the rout by Michigan, the seniors had called a meeting to make sure everyone was still committed to the team's goals. Short said he came away from that meeting and the homecoming pep rally feeling nothing but positive vibes.